What can be done with a broken motherboard. New life motherboards. Review of design solutions. Source of RAM

Many readers know that gold (the AU chemical symbol) is used in the jewelry industry. But not everyone suspect that it is also used in the production of electronics (including computer components) Due to the magnificent thermal and electrical conductivity, resistance to oxidation (that is, to the appearance of rust) and stability. Computer Industry Consumes several hundred tons of this metal annually (318 tons in 2003, for example).

The precious metal can be found in almost all computer components - in processors, motherboardsah, expansion maps, modules dimm memory etc. Of course, each component uses a tiny share of gold. But in recent years, gold prices have soared up, so it becomes more economically beneficial to get gold out of old components than to extract it traditional way. That is why specialized companies engaged in this market appeared on the market.

Today we will show how you can get gold from old motherboards with your own hands. Please note: the chemicals that we used in the demonstration are very dangerous, especially in concentrations taken by us. Therefore, we do not recommend repeating this experiment at home.

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The first stage of our experiment is to remove all these contacts and connectors. We will need pliers, pliers and cutter, flat and cross dusting, as well as some time.

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For experiments you need a large number of Contacts - they were just provided with our donor motherboards.

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We also need chemical reagents and tools.

Electrolysis

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To obtain a read micrograms of gold applied to contacts, we need an electrolytic cell. In the bath is nalitis 95% concentrated sulfuric acid. The cathode is made of lead, an anode from copper. Contacts (raw materials) are connected to the anode that we made in the form of a basket.

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When we skip through the cell electricity (we used the usual charger For batteries) Copper on the anode (and on contacts) is dissolved and deposited on the lead cathode. Gold, no longer associated with copper, shapes the sediment at the bottom of the cell. It should also be noted that during this process, the temperature in the bath is significantly increased.

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After gold was separated from the contacts, the bath must be given time to settle. Then, it should be removed as much sulfuric acid as possible, after which it is possible to proceed to dissolve residues at the bottom of the electrolytic cell.

Dilution

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Be careful and always drain the acid into the water, and not the opposite! If you are mistaken, then the first drops of water, which will come into contact with sulfuric acid, will instantly evaporate, and the acid can sprinkle at the same time.

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We have a solution of sulfuric acid, different metals (including gold) and waste that needs to be filtered. Why not filter an acid directly, without dilution? Just because of the fact that paper filters do not stand in front of concentrated sulfuric acid.

Dissolution

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The filter will remain a mixture of different metals and waste. Now we are all soluble in a mixture of 35% hydrochloric acid and a 5% chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite), in proportion 2: 1.

2 HCl + Naclo -\u003e Cl 2 + NaCl + H 2 O

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Be careful! This reaction is exothermic, it leads to the release of chlorine, very dangerous gas. Chlorine was used as a chemical weapon in the First World War.

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In fact, chlorine, which was excreted as a result of mixing hydrochloric acid and chlorine bleach, we will be used to dissolve gold in the form of gold chloride III.

2 AU + 3 Cl 2 -\u003e 2 AUCL 3

Again filtering

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Now we need to filter again. The filter will delay all waste, leaving only a solution of gold and gold chloride.

Deposition

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To get metal gold, we need to be aspired in solution. For this purpose, we will use powdered sodium metabisulphite. In the presence of water, sodium metabisulfit gives sodium bisulfite.

Na 2 S 2 O 2 + H 2 O -\u003e 2 NaHSO 3

It is bisulfite sodium that will allow us to settle gold.

3 NaHSO 3 + 2 AUCL 3 + 3 H 2 O -\u003e 3 NaHSO 4 + 6 HCl + 2 AU

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It is necessary to give a solution to settle, after which we get gray powder at the bottom of the laboratory glass. Do not lose neither grains are metal gold!

Melting

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Now we need to melt powder in the crucible.

The melting point of gold is 1064 ° C, so that we need oxygen-butane burner.

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As a result, we got a pleasant golden crushing!

Is it possible to call our process economically justified? Definitely no. It makes sense only on an industrial scale. A small crusher from gold, which we got, is just two or three dollars at current prices. Yes, and, frankly, companies that extract gold from old computers use other technologies and chemicals that are even more dangerous. But, you see, it is still interesting to know that you can get gold from the motherboard at home.

You can also receive gold from expansion cards, processors and chipsets. But this topic is already for another article.

If you have a non-working laptop somewhere, do not hurry to throw it out or sell to buy stakes. Almost any laptop you can make a few useful things that you will also be useful. Earlier, we, how to get an LCD matrix from a laptop and make a monitor with a TV function, and today we will tell how to use other valuable components - hard drive and disk drive.

Winchester

If the hard drive is a laptop, you can make it portable drivewhich connects to any computer through uSB port and does not require additional nutrition. To do this, you need to purchase a special case or adapter. The most important thing is to choose the right box. See what kind of interface is connected to the Winchester - SATA (on the left in the photo) or IDE (right) - and select the case with the same connector. In the case of connecting via SATA, you still need to decide what speed you need - the average via USB 2.0 or high via USB 3.0. The connection standard is specified in the Boxing Specifications, but some sellers (for example, on Aliexpress) can bait, so this moment is better to clarify them separately. Blank boxes for hard drives are sold in computer stores and on the Internet. In China, they cost from 150 rubles with free shipping.

Collect a portable hard disk is very simple: disassemble the box, insert the hard drive into it and connect it to a regular USB cable to a computer. If the disk is determined, it means everything is fine, you can use it. In the event that the disk is not recognized, you need to make sure that it is in charge (the first sign is a slightly noise, and hear how the plates turn inside). May have to take advantage special program To work with disks and format it. If nothing helps, it means that the disk itself is defective or box.

Disk drive

Similarly, an external "cutter" can be made from a laptop CD or DVD drive, for this again the external boxing will be required. As in the case of a hard drive, the drive can be connected via the IDE or SATA interface, and depending on this, the choice of boxing will depend on it.

Case for external disk drive - Pretty exotic goods, in local computer stores you can hardly find it, and on Ebay, Aliexpress and other similar venues they are represented by many sellers and stand relative to the cheap.

The remaining components of the laptop (case, motherboard, RAM, battery, fan, keyboard, loops, connectors) are unlikely to be useful to you, they can be thrown out or sell, even if cheap. The power supply is better to leave, it is expensive and can approach another laptop or it will be useful to you later.

External DVD-drive with USB

Thin ultrabooks, mini computers and devices "All in one" are not equipped with a built-in optical drive Due to the lack of space. However, the user who wants to play or record DVDs will require an external solution with a USB connector.

The most inexpensive version is a used DVD recorder from a desktop or laptop installed in a suitable case. In this case, compact drives are provided with power through a USB port, and for larger 5.25 inches form factor models, an additional power supply is required.

Users who find the usual plastic housing are too boring, can pay their attention to such high-quality models, such as RAIDSONIC Icy Box IB-550STU3S with backlight (about 5000 rubles on eBay).

Labor intensity: average; Costs: 1500 rub.

2 DECT cordless phone becomes "Radio"

Available wireless phone Without much effort and additional costs, you can use as a "baboiffon" and thus with great convenience controlling the baby's sleep. This requires only a used DECT phone.

Most models, regardless of the manufacturer, support GAP technology. You only need to register an old wireless tube on base station DECT. As this feature operates in each case, described in the appropriate manual. In most cases, the PIN-code required to connect to the database is "0000".

By registering the phone, find the Radiona / Directory Mode menu, which supports most devices. After turning on the function, the tube can be placed in the immediate vicinity of the child. When a certain sound volume is exceeded, the call will go to another machine.

Labor intensity: small; Costs: No.

3 The router becomes repeater

Old wireless router Can be used in home network As a repeater and thus optimize the quality and range of the wireless network. We will show how to reconfigure it.

1. Open the router interface through which the Internet is connected. Usually for this in the address bar of the browser you need to enter the address like 192.168.1.1. In the System (System) paragraph, check the version software And if necessary, download updates.

2. Then in the Working Mode ("Work Mode" paragraph), check whether the "Router" operation mode is enabled. Note that in your router these items may have another name.

3. Now with network cable Connect the old router to the computer, disconnect wireless connection and open in the browser user interface Router. If you need to update the firmware, go to the manufacturer's page and download software to your model. Then open the "System / Update" item in the old device menu and specify the path to the update file.

4. Now in the Working Mode menu item) of the old device, select the mode of operation as a repeater. Next, select your home from the list of available networks. wireless network, enter password. The old router will immediately expand your wireless network. If there is no such point in the configuration of your router, try to install alternative firmware DD-WRT.

Labor intensity: small; Costs: No.

4 Transformation of the monitor to the computer

Computer at the minimum price

Do you have a monitor for which now not to find applications? Spent some money, you can turn it into full computer. For this you will need a mini-PC, such as Compute Stick. from Intel (about 7000 rubles).

This "baby", despite the pocket format, is a full-fledged PC with the ATOM processor, 2 GB of RAM and Windows 10. It is easily connected to the monitor via the HDMI port, the keyboard and mouse can be connected via USB or Bluetooth.

An even more affordable option is the Raspberry PI computer (about 4,000 rubles), but at the same time you will have content with only Linux distributions.

Labor intensity: average; Costs: 4000 rubles.

5 Search for extraterrestrial life

Support research

Is there any life outside of our solar system? How can I improve the accelerator of charged particles? How will the climate change in the coming decades?

If you want to participate in the search for answers to such questions, you can put your technical means To the service of science. The BOINC California University software platform in Berkeley is one of the most famous software systems for organizing distributed computing.

The most famous projects applies [Email Protected] - The search program for extraterrestrial mind. To participate in it, you need to install the free BOINC software on an unused computer, connect it to the Internet and allow it to use it in the computing network.

Labor intensity: small; Costs: No.

6 Transformation of PCs in the media center

Entertainment center full installation package Kodi provides maximum volume of functions.

You can turn off the laptop that is no longer using a laptop without much trouble and additional costs to a powerful media center. At the same time, two scenarios are possible: you operate the computer as a separate system with a monitor or have it close to the TV and connect devices via HDMI ports.

Kodi is used as software (https://kodi.tv/), which many know under the previous title Xbox Media Center (XBMC).

First steps: at the Main menu item "Settings / Appearance", or "Settings / Appearance", On the InterMal tab (" Language settings») You can choose a language, region and keyboard layout. Then specify the KODI program where multimedia files are located. In the main menu, in the sections "Photo", "Video" and "Music" you can specify the path to the data.

Labor intensity: average; Costs: No.

These components of the PC should be saved

\u003e Hard disk: Large capacity drives are always necessary and can be used as external HDD.

\u003e RAM: Modules random access memory You can easily extract and use to upgrade another personal computer.

> Discrete video card: Do not throw away graphic map, And save it as an important spare part.

Photo: Manufacturers companies

August 26, 2010 09:30

Gold is present in many elements of the motherboard: IDE connectors, PCI Express, PCI, AGP, ISA slots and other ports, in jumpers, in the processor socket and DIMM slots (SIMM on old motherboard). All these connectors are often covered with a thin layer of gold with a thickness of several microns.

Instruments

Title \u003d "(! Lang: Gold is present in many elements of the motherboard: IDE connectors, PCI Express, PCI, AGP, ISA slots and other ports, in jumpers, in the processor socket and DIMM slots (SIMM on old motherboards). All these The connectors are often covered with a thin layer of gold with a thickness of several microns.

Instruments">!}

For experiments, you need a large number of contacts - they were just provided with our "donor" motherboards.

We also need chemical reagents and tools.

After gold was separated from the contacts, the bath must be given time to settle. Then, it should be removed as much sulfuric acid as possible, after which it is possible to proceed to dissolve residues at the bottom of the electrolytic cell.

We have a solution of sulfuric acid, different metals (including gold) and waste that needs to be filtered. Why not filter an acid directly, without dilution? Just because of the fact that paper filters do not stand in front of concentrated sulfuric acid.

The filter will remain a mixture of different metals and waste. Now we are all soluble in a mixture of 35% hydrochloric acid and a 5% chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite), in proportion 2: 1. 2 HCl + Naclo -\u003e CL2 + NaCl + H2O

Title \u003d "(! Lang: The filter will remain a mixture of different metals and waste. Now we are all soluble in a mixture of 35% hydrochloric acid and 5% chloride bleach (sodium hypochlorite), in proportion 2: 1. 2 HCl + NaClo -\u003e CL2 + NaCl + H2O">!}

In fact, chlorine, which was excreted as a result of mixing hydrochloric acid and chlorine bleach, we just use to dissolve gold in the form of gold chloride III.2 AU + 3 CL2 -\u003e 2 AUCL3

Now we need to filter again. The filter will delay all waste, leaving only a solution of gold and gold chloride.

To get metal gold, we need to be aspired in solution. For this purpose, we will use powdered sodium metabisulphite. In the presence of water, sodium metabisulfit gives sodium bisulfite. Na2S2O2 + H2O -\u003e 2 NaHSO3 It is the sodium bisulfite that will allow us to be placed gold. 3 NaHSO3 + 2 AUCL3 + 3 H2O -\u003e 3 NaHSO4 + 6 HCl + 2 AU

Title \u003d "(! Lang: To get a metal gold, we need to be aspired in solution. For this purpose, we will use powdered sodium metabisulphite. If there is water, sodium metabisulfit gives sodium bisulfite. Na2S2O2 + H2O -\u003e 2 NaHSO3 It is the sodium bisulfite will allow us Sefiate gold. 3 NaHSO3 + 2 AUCL3 + 3 H2O -\u003e 3 NaHSO4 + 6 HCl + 2 AU">!}

It is necessary to give a solution to settle, after which we get gray powder at the bottom of the laboratory glass. Do not lose neither grains are metal gold!

As a result, we got a pleasant golden crushing! Is it possible to call our process economically justified? Definitely no. It makes sense only on an industrial scale. A small crusher from gold, which we got, is just two or three dollars at current prices. Yes, and, frankly, companies that extract gold from old computers use other technologies and chemicals that are even more dangerous. But you will agree, it is still interesting to know that you can get gold from the motherboard at home. Also you can get gold from expansion cards, processors and chipsets.

Once we are faced with the need to do something with outdated and already unnecessary computer equipment. Throw out Sell? To put the remnants of the designer clock or keychain? This will be discussed further.

Indeed, the desire to "sell" usually faces laziness: ranging from the reluctance of simple price monitoring and ending the phobia of communication with strangers by phone. And to throw out - it still needs to go where it follows! And this is not to mention that most of the electrical engineering should be disposed of properly.

Sell \u200b\u200bas it is

The first thing comes to mind is to sell. If you have the technique in good condition, the desktop periodically cleaned or blocked, then all this can be sold in almost the same price that this filling is now worth it. It is easy to know it: it's enough to view the site of public ads like Avito and estimate the average cost in your city, after which you try to sell a little cheaper (even a decrease in the price tag for 50-100 rubles is able to bring profit).

It is not worth selling repair offices and pawnshops, since it is less profitable. As a rule, the second is usually taken for half a camp, and first know perfectly perfectly for how much what they sell and try to convince you that you do not sell your glands more expensive than it is. It is clear that the independent sale is preferable to such "intermediaries."

For parts

Partially refused equipment can be tried to sell on parts - and again with ads.

How to understand how old "iron" can be sold on parts? Suppose you have a burned video card, and it is a pity to throw out: but if you look, she has an excellent radiator. It is possible to sell at its price, the benefit of craftsmen who can adapt the old to the new, are abundant.

And in the old dusty case, usually all or almost all the buttons work: cleaned from dust, the metal parts of the alcohol and ahead, for sale, are cleaned. In short, it is possible to sell even a tanger in Africa - there would be a desire.

Do it yourself

It appropriate to say about various exotic applications of spare parts. But here you already need an application not the most curves: for example, you can make an aquarium from the desktop housing or an old electrical monitor. Of course, it is worth remembering that the glass of the desired dimensions will most likely come out, and still pay attention to the fact that the body does not become harmful plastic, which strangles poor fish in the literal sense.

In addition, you can make a CD wall Clock (And as numbers to adapt the keyboard buttons), from the mouse - drawn cat with a tail, rings from the buttons, earrings and other decorations from capacitors. And this is not to mention well-known key chains from processors.

In general, fantasy is where to turn around, there would be the necessary components at hand.

Server or multimedia center

Oddly enough, but with the reproduction of ordinary mp3 perfectly, the workable PC is not over 15 years old. Enough to add a spacious room hDD (But be sure to check whether the BIOS will pull such volumes!) And hold cables for columns.

By the way, built into the motherboard sound solutions In the time immemorial, there were very far from very cheap external, therefore it makes sense to acquire any cheap PCI or ISA-sound payment.

As for the reproduction of films, this is exactly what old computer No longer suitable. Unfortunately for them, modern films as Full HD require serious capacities of both the processor and the video card, and the 15-year-old "old man" will simply do not cope with this.

But the old computer can be used as a file or web server, which will "spin" your site and your own mail server.

Nostalgia on the Poison

In fact, you yourself can easily buy old computers from the 1990s - today they don't stand almost nothing. And it will be quite a workable good old DX4-66 with a two-speed CD-ROM and a functioning CRT monitor with a diagonal of 14 or 15 inches (and if lucky - and with the "shield that protects against radiation").

However, it is possible to buy it in general "for the pickup", if lucky. But no, it will not be possible to sell it, and do not dream: such rarities have not yet become fully: perhaps, in ten years it will be, but not today.

In principle, you can try to sell an ancient PC (and Mac and immediately with your hands will tear off) under the guise of "retro middle of the last century": the key to success is the correct feeding of your product.

And if you yourself want to buy something similar, then you and cards in your hands: From such a rary computer, you can make a car for old games, put Full Throttle on it, Duke Nukem 3D or some fighting. Nostalgic on King's Quest 3, Leisure Suit Larry 5 or Gabriel Knight trilogy? Without problems: Old 386/486 can easily cope with them and completely immerse you into the atmosphere of childhood.

And it is not necessary to take the desktop: if there is money, you can spend them on the laptop of those times that have now quite reached the Condition of Rareitta and stand quite quite a lot. But places will occupy less. Remember yet how to use the trackball?